Visit Croatia Review: Video Game History Museum, Zagreb

I’ve written many times about how Zagreb has a very extensive and fun museum offering. The city offers visitors and locals alike everything from more traditional venues (concentrating on history and art, for example) to more modern museums covering heartbreak, hangovers and errr…selfies. A new kid on the Zagreb festival scene is the Video Game History Museum, which opened last year. I was lucky enough to pay this fine museum a visit recently – see what I thought here!

A display of games from the 1980s in the Video Game History Museum in Zagreb, Croatia — Some of the video games from the 1980s

First impressions

Located very centrally on Draskovic Street, a short walk from the main square, this museum is on multiple floors and flows through the decades of video gaming history.

The two main floors cover multiple viewpoints on the history of video games, with impressive timeline displays, many games and consoles, and even little “rooms” showing a typical teenager’s room from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s – each “in” a different city.

What’s important to remember is that this museum hasn’t suddenly been magicked up in the last year. All of the items presented here are part of a private collection by museum owner Damir Šlogar, himself a video game pioneer. As such, it’s a seriously impressive series of items. Read more about how the museum came to be here: New in Zagreb – The Video Game History Museum.

The focus of the museum is to tell the story of gaming, of course, but also the story of gaming publishers and designers and gaming hardware through the ages. And that it certainly does.

Let’s go back in time

Now, when did video games first emerge? The 1970s, right? Before they really burst into the mainstream with home gaming in the early 1980s?

Not quite! Thanks to the museum, I learned that one of the very first video games ever created was Tennis for Two, which launched in 1958. Yes, 1958! There’s a replica version of the game in the museum, comprising of an analogue computer with multiple dials as controls and an oscilloscope for a display. This game is both far removed from what we know, but also vaguely familiar!

Video Game History Museum, Zagreb — The replica of Tennis for Two

But there are also other early games before something like Pong came out, namely Spacewar! (1961) or Computer Space (1971). Know of them? I didn’t, and was surprised to see the familiar but also strange shape of Computer Space, the very first arcade machine.

But this museum, of course, devotes much of its displays to very well-known games and hardware. From Atari, BBC Micro, Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum, Apple Computers, Commodore machines and Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Breakout, Lemmings in the early days to Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, Xbox, Snake on mobile phones… I mean, I’m barely scratching the surface of what the museum is home to. You’ll just have to pay a visit yourself to find out!

Game away, friends

Of course, a museum dedicated to gaming history wouldn’t be particularly exciting if it were just a long line of display cases with everything locked away behind glass. The fantastic aspect of this museum is that there are so many interactive elements, with multiple consoles and games being able to be played!

In particular, there are two very, very cool highlights. First up, there’s a giant projected Pac-Man that would be great fun to do battle on with a buddy. Secondly, there’s what can only be loosely described as an arcade hall of fame room. Eleven full arcade machines stand side by side proudly, ready for you to play. I was delighted to see one of my childhood favourites, Bubble Bobble, there. I had to be dragged away from playing it for too long!

1980s Home Computing at the Video Game History Museum, Zagreb Croatia — Home gaming in the 1980s – you can see the giant Pac-Man just to the left

Pong? Were people excited by this?

Now, I personally am super nostalgic for the history of gaming in the 1980s, especially as that’s when I was a child. But I can absolutely see how you younger lot might be underwhelmed by these early, rather basic (but very charming!) games. So the second floor instead might tug on your heartstrings, as the museum moves into gaming history from the 1990s and 2000s. A giant Mario and Luigi greet you before you walk through an astonishing array of famous titles and consoles. It’s amazing to see just how many different bits of hardware were released in the 1990s – some very famous and successful, and some somewhat of a failure.

There are also some long-forgotten but important elements of gaming history that are oh-so relevant today. For example, the Virtual Boy machine which was released by Nintendo in 1995, one of the earliest examples of virtual/3D gaming. (The machine was discontinued after only a year due to high production costs and lack of third-party support.)

Video Game History Museum, Zagreb Croatia — Moving on to the 1990s and 2000s…

1990s games at the Video Game History Museum, Zagreb Croatia — Just look at the games from the 1990s

Eh, I’m not so much into video games, I don’t think it’s for me

If you’ve ever encountered a computer, video game or video game character over the last 40 or so years, you’ll definitely still get something out of this museum – I promise you. It’s a real nostalgia trip, even if you’re not a big video gamer! Case in point – I visited the museum with my mum, who’s never played a video game in her life. But even she remembers a lot of the consoles and characters that we’ve had at home over the years.

Now, I would loosely describe myself as a gamer with gaming highs and lows over the decades. Whilst I was lucky enough to have home experience of computers in the 1980s (thanks to my father, who was the founder and publisher of Europe’s first computer magazine, Personal Computer World), it was mobile gaming in the 1990s that really piqued my interest. Thanks, original Game Boy! (And then the Game Gear a few years later.)

A display of video games from the 1980s, including Lemmings — One of my favourite childhood games, Lemmings…

An arcade version of Bubble Bobble — One of my favourite childhood games, Lemmings…

So, should I visit the Video Game History Museum in Zagreb?

Absolutely! It is a very fun museum to visit. It offers a real combination of teaching you something, providing you with lots of memories and allowing you to fully interact with many of the exhibits. Play your heart out with the video games of your childhood!